Ever respond to one of those sexy looking ‘freebie offers’ only to find out that once you’ve taken the time to jump through the hoops, there’s a fee and a sneaky little paid subscription offer deeply embedded in the fine print?

I don’t know about you, but whenever I come across those situations it irritates the heck out of me. If your gonna put up  a Free offer on your blog or whatever, then make it Free.

Now there’s nothing wrong with advertising a paid offer on the same page as the freebie, at least I have the option of choosing to ‘tack that on’ versus being forced fed something that I wasn’t particularly looking for.

The worst part about forced continuity is that it’s predicated on the fact that you’ll forget the expiration date of the subscription before your credit card gets banged for a monthly subscription fee.

There are two sets of thoughts that you have to deal with when you participate in one of these deals:

1. The nagging effort you have to put forth to remember the expiration of the ‘Free trial’ that looms in the back of your head. This is an unnecessary stress to deal with while you’re attempting to consume the product.

If you’re not in a relaxed enough state to take in the information, than the information will have little to no value. Time and money wasted.

2. The nauseating sensation that accompanies the surprise charge you forgot all about on your credit card bill. The first the thought that screams in my head is “da**it!” And the next course of action is you immediately begin scrambling to find the cancellation information.

Been there done that.

I’m not saying that you can’t have a monthly subscription to a service or newsletter, but when you bury that away in what is supposed to be a free offer, than your credibility and  the credibility of the internet marketing industry takes another blow. Making it harder and harder for newbies with hopes of making it online to get over the initial fears that are already associated with doing business online in the first place.

So to sum it up, Forced Continuity Is Crap!

If you would like to read more about this topic check out Michel Fortins’ Blog over at:

http://www.michelfortin.com

Take care,

Nando

If you liked this post would Digg or Stumble It for me?

Have you ever read about people that just buy stuff just to buy stuff? It’s like the thrill is in the purchase. The new product is so shiny and brand spanking new.

The excitement level is high and it almost seems as if the anticipation is more exciting than the actual product itself. The emails are coming fast and furious as every big name on the planet is promoting this “new thing”. It’s like a big party to celebrate the amount of money the merchant is making and for just a moment you’re invited.

Wow, it’s just so awesome and to think you might actually make a few bucks too, if you do this stuff. Then when you can’t take it no more you finally go ahead and buy the darn thing, crack open the new toy and all of a sudden… the excitement is gone.

Guess what? This thing ain’t going to work by itself. You know what that means… you gotta learn how to use it. Oh no. I didn’t sign up for that.

This is the case of most product junkies. They just live for the excitement of the launch and the possibility that this next product will just magically cause their clickbank account to go into ’tilt’ like an old pinball game. When it doesn’t happen, it’s off to the email inbox to see what else is going on to get excited about.

You know what? Even the crappiest of products out there will yield some results if you put forth the effort to make it work. It’s true. You can take one method of traffic generation and work it til it bleeds and make some money. The trouble is most people don’t want to hear that.

If you’re an info product junkie the only way to break out of the vicious cycle of running up your credit card is to take action. Take action on something and just keep taking that same action over and over again. Eventually you will begin to enjoy the benefits of your hard work when your efforts begin to compound themselves.

You can succeed if you want to. If you want to then you will do what you have to.

Go for it,
Nando